Wow factor huge at Urban Spaces Tour

The West Side as seen from atop the Vistana, Market Square on the left, Milam Park on the right.

Besides the part where a tour guide mistook me for an Amigo (in her defense, I was wearing a clear poncho and a green jacket underneath and am not white), this year's Urban Spaces Tour was a most satisfying excursion, an architectural feast attended by nearly 200 admirers and, to a large degree, residents of downtown.

Honestly, the night was one huge ego stroke after another. If there ever was a gathering of potential Downtown Blog readers, it would be the Urban Spaces Tour. It's easy for me to get caught up in the name recognition. Then I have to tell myself it's not about me, but them. These are the people with the information (no matter the importance) and it's my job to find out what they know. But I'll nip the narcissism in the bud and get on with the actual tour.

Friday night's drizzle hampered the walking tour to a degree, but at least it wasn't pouring. We ended up surpassing much of the outdoor stops by making B-lines to the sheltered portions of the tour.

The tour began at the rooftop penthouse of the Morris Apartment building, 128 E. Main Plaza. Though I knew it existed, I'd never been up there. It offers a breathtaking, cinematic view of downtown's prettiest and dynamic cluster of buildings: the brilliantly orange Bexar County Courthouse and the blocky contrast of the neighboring Bexar County Justice Center; cars marching down Dolorosa Street; the iconic San Fernando Cathedral; Municipal Plaza Building; now-contemporary Main Plaza; the part of the River Walk that looks more like a channel; the strobing western facade of the Drury Plaza Hotel; and then Dolorosa again as it turns into Market Street. All seen from a grackle-eye's view.

Inside the penthouse, the bling (alien-green glow-in-the-dark necklaces and blinking plastic jewelry), a signature touch of the UST, was generously being distributed. Deborah Maltz, one of downtown's most recognizable real estate folks, gave me a rather large piece of bling  a flashing star-shaped necklace that reminded me of Kryptonite.

Many of the Morris' apartments are small, but, oh, that view.

The Morris is one of my favorite buildings, for it's history and for what it is now  downtown's best example of mixed-use. According to the tour, the southern part the building was constructed in 1910 and the rest finished out a few years later. Now, it's mostly an apartment building, but also houses a handful of hotel rooms, the rentable penthouse, Main Plaza Market (which includes a liquor store), El Jalisco Mexican restaurant and Central Park Pizza of New York, and including some office space.

The 4 p.m. tour, on its way to Marti's.

Marti's  importer of Mexican fine art and furniture.

From the Morris, we splashed our way across Main Plaza to Marti's, 310 W. Commerce St., the newly-opened, two-floor store of Mexican fine art and furniture. Way out of my price range, for certain. Stunning pieces of furniture, it's easy to assume this is the best Mexico has to offer. Large wooden tables. Sterling silverware. Jewelry enclosed in glass. All most certainly handcrafted. Marti's is based out of Nuevo Laredo. The pueblo-style building here was completed a few months ago and replaces the former Los Apaches, one of downtown's oldest Mexican food restaurants until about three years ago when it was torn down to make room for Marti's.

Then, it was off to the Alameda Theater. On the way, we passed El Tenampa Bar. I wish the tour would have taken a peek inside. It's one of the few reminders of Old San Antonio, an establishment that began in 1955 on the corner of West Houston and Camaron streets. It has remained largely the same since it opened. And it probably won't be around by next year's UST. It's for sale. Look for the bar's story in this blog next month.

But onto the Alameda Theater. According to theater docent Celso Abad, the Alameda was built in 1949 as a rebuttal to the Aztec Theater's no-Latinos-allowed policy. It was meant as both a movie and entertainment theater. The highlights were the huge blacklight murals of European and Texas history on the theater's walls. Aside from the occasional galas, it's been unused since the 1970s. The Alameda National Center for Latino Arts and Culture, which also runs the museum, is the nonprofit raising money for its renovation.

Amber Melendez (right), general manager of IHOP Café, talks about the new restaurant.

Fast forward past the IHOP Café (which opened last week) and the Museo Alameda (where the marvelous and autobiographical exhibit by Jesse Treviño is currently on display) and we found ourselves at perhaps downtown's most unique and expensive rental space  the three-tiered penthouse at the top of the Vistana apartment building.

The Vistana's grand apartment has three levels.

Last year's View was provided by the Vidorra's party space, which looked at the downtown skyline from an eastern vantage point. After the Vidorra, folks were lead across the street to the closing reception at the Spire (a former church) so that all of the conversing and mixing and nibbling on deservedness' hors d'ouerves took place on the ground.

This year, the View and the party were combined into one  at the Vistana's penthouse. The food and drink were on the first level, but everyone was encouraged to explore every inch of the 3,700-square-foot space inside and experience the near-360-degree view of our city not once, but twice, as there are two balconies.

It's a sweet suite. Again, out of my price range: $6,973 a month.

If you read this blog, you know my affinity for the massive, 247-unit apartment building, so I won't gush too much more about the Vistana. Below are photos taken from the tower suite.

Another view from atop the Vistana.

I ended up tacking on El Tenampa (below) to my version of the tour.

Overall, the rain was an unavoidable, minor setback. This year's Urban Spaces Tour still managed to rise above it and deliver the goods  a unique perspective of downtown's west side.

Have to agree with you Ben, the Urban Spaces tour was great. I had the Architecture grad student group led by Bill Dupont on my tour which made it all the more interesting. I highly recommend the tour next year to anyone interested in downtown. The nice part about the tour for me was that it ended up in the Vistana, my home, so it was two floors down the elevator. Sweet!